The Big Interview: Chris Maclean, the Railway Hotel
In the early days of blogging Chris Maclean wrote one of few readable ones, amusing dispatches from his pub, telling of his tribulations and triumphs and sharing sharp insights into the business of being of licensee.
On the strength of that, Maclean and his wife Melanie were my guests at the Publican Awards one year. When it got to the part when the winners were called up for a group photo, he calmly folded his napkin, whispered in my ear “watch this” and marched confidently on to the stage. Not only had he not won anything, he wasn’t even a finalist. But check back through the files and you’ll find the Big Man among the winners that year, grinning away at the back.
That’s not the kind of mischief you’d expect from a vicar, yet on June 29 this year Maclean is set to be ordained at Canterbury Cathedral, and he’ll leave the Railway Hotel in Faversham, crossing Kent to the parish of Walmer, near Deal.
The Church of England’s gain will be the pub trade’s loss. Maclean’s early career was a muddle. He started out working in catering, which he “hated”, took a degree in international relations, and ended up in insurance, which he “hated”.
“Then I had a road-to-Damascus moment — I could run a pub! I liked the hospitality side of catering and a friend ran the Gate at Marshside in Kent. When I was sacked from the insurance company — on trumped up charges — I went to work on a kind of innkeeping apprenticeship. I learned the craft and got to know the brewery, Shepherd Neame.
“Two years later Sheps offered me the Plough & Harrow at Bridge. It was on its knees, but I had a clear sense where I wanted to go with it. It was a proper boozer with no food, so you had to focus on the hospitality and welcome. That worked extremely well and I built a real community pub there.”
Dark and nasty
As the pub industry turned increasingly towards food, Maclean was looked to as proof that an all-wet pub could still work. After 15 years his surprising move to the Railway, another Sheps tenancy, happened by chance. “My train was delayed and I was stuck at Faversham so I came in here. It was a mess. They had six televisions — Vanessa Feltz was on, I seem to remember — and I asked the barmaid why. She said the customers liked them — but there were no customers!
“The curtains were drawn and it was dark and nasty with an undercurrent of malevolence. It had issues with drugs and vandalism. But I loved the back-bar, and I could see where it had come from — a Belle Epoque pub that had been utterly abused.
“So I emailed the brewery, told them what a lovely pub it could be, and that I’d be interested if it came on the books. It turned out it was on the books and I said I’d have it.
“They thought I’d gone ga-ga. I’d be leaving a wonderful pub to work in a monster. A year later, though, they had to admit I was right.
“I have a sense that Sheps never quite understands what I’m doing, but they back me on a hunch,” he adds. “I’ve been lucky in my relationship with them. I know the characters involved and they know me. They know when I’m being serious and when they can take what I say with a shrug. It could get acrimonious otherwise.
“I’m not out of the same mould of licensee they usually have. I never set out to be a maverick but I’ve taken some initiatives that have both bemused and impressed them.”
Like the fresh flowers and The Daily Telegraph. Like the ‘Not as cheap as Wetherspoons’ banner. Like the spoof erotic Barbara Cartland episodes — set in the Railway — in the gents. Like the bottle of Lillet aperitif on the back-bar in case anyone asks for the martini James Bond really drank in Casino Royale (no one ever has). Like the pickled testicles of various animals displayed alongside Maclean’s home-made marmalade.
“It’s always good to have a vision,” he says, but for all his quirks and mischiefs it’s really standards that drive his business. “From the outset I’ve had a clear sense of purpose, an uncompromising approach to delivering quality and offering a straight bat.
“We won’t sell house spirits, shots or trebles, and if anyone asks for alcopops we’ve got a bottle of Smirnoff Ice that we’ve had since I arrived. It’s old and warm and it’s £8.80. That’s a clear statement that I don’t want to sell that kind of thing.
“People come here for a social drink. A pub is a supervised environment, and it plays a social function. Where better to encourage respon-sible drinking, where the penalty
for me is the loss of my livelihood. We’ve failed to appreciate our importance.
“I’m motivated by pride,” he goes on. “We’re aiming for a level of excellence here that isn’t always a comfortable bedfellow with business. I’ve seen a shift from pubs being a lifestyle choice to becoming a business stripped of all the other details.
“A lot of the pleasure has gone. That doesn’t matter a jot on one level, but it makes for a grey, soulless business. It’s a matter of quality versus quantity, and quantity is the god now. “But that’s not why I’m leaving.”
Spiritual welfare
Maclean has been active in the church as a lay minister for a number of years and felt he should take on more responsibility.
“It was suggested I become a ‘stipendiary incumbent’. I had to look it up. It means a paid vicar! That shocked me. I was waking up in a cold sweat. Leaving the pub to become a vicar for even less money and fewer perks? It made no sense.”
But he became convinced it was his calling — and there are more parallels between publicans and vicars than you might think. “I’m a public figure here, and that will continue. The church, too, has a long and honourable tradition of alcohol production. At the wedding at Cana when Jesus turns the water into wine it says there are ‘six jars’, which I’ve worked out is about 1,000 bottles.
“So there’s an important role for alcohol as part of celebration. It’s not drunkenness and debauchery, it’s beneficial. And if you’re brought up a protestant you know that you earn a pint. It’s part of our upbringing to reward ourselves with beer.
“There are some lovely pubs in my new parish, which is a bonus. I can’t imagine abandoning this trade completely.
“I’ve raised the possibility of having a chaplaincy within the pub industry. There’s a glaring need to look after the spiritual welfare of licensees on a number of levels. They are vic-tims of social injustice, exploited and working in difficult circumstances.”
Sheps are still going to miss him. Tenanted trade director George Barnes describes Chris and Melanie as “brilliant licensees” who have “made the Railway Hotel an institution”.
New tenants are being sought, but as Maclean points out, he pays his staff £7.50 an hour and takes them on trips to the opera and Bruges. “I’m not being funny, but it’s going to be hard to find someone to follow that.”
Although anyone trying to follow an act like Chris Maclean might find that the least of their difficulties.
Key dates
1976
After catering college Chris Maclean works in hotels, including London’s Tower Hotel
1982
Studies for a degree in international relations at the University of Kent
1985
Gets a job in insurance
1989
Works at the Gate Inn, Marshside
1991
Becomes tenant at the Plough & Harrow, Bridge
1994
Named Shepherd Neame’s Cellar Master of the Year
1995
Plough & Harrow wins Sheps’ Pub of the Year
2001
Finalist in The Publican Awards Marketing Pub of the Year, Sheps’ Training Pub of the Year
2006
Takes on Railway Hotel, Faversham
2008
Publican Awards ‘Proud of Pubs’ finalist and Shepherd Neame’s Most Improved Pub
2011
Finalist, The Publican Awards’ Publican of the Year
